She just seemed to have everyone in the friend zone. Kilo, Finn and Poe loved her but she was on the autism spectrum or something like that and just smiled at them. Except she kissed Kilo but that didn't count because he was a ghost at the time.
I definitely got the romance vibe off of her and Kylo, so I don't think he was in the zone. Finn was mayor of the zone. Did Poe love her? I never got that impression.
shareAt the end it was clear that Rey fancied Kilo but otherwise I thought it was not certain. I don't know that Poe loved her exactly but I got the definite impression he wouldn't have said no.
I was pretty sure in Last Jedi that she was into him. Her asking him to put his shirt back on smacked of, "Methinks the lady doth protest too much."
In Rise of Skywalker, Poe and Finn were shown having fun banter right at the start - best mates! Then the way Poe got SO ANGRY with Finn for seeming to be hitting on Rey it had the hallmarks of a jealous lover spurned and I thought for all the world that they were going to pull the trigger on the Finn-Poe shippers' biggest dream...
I was pretty sure in Last Jedi that she was into him. Her asking him to put his shirt back on smacked of, "Methinks the lady doth protest too much."
That was probably their intention to give that impression but I just thought she was uncomfortable with nudity. It seemed more of a prudish "oh no" reaction than a "this is hot" reaction to me.
Then the way Poe got SO ANGRY with Finn for seeming to be hitting on Rey it had the hallmarks of a jealous lover spurned and I thought for all the world that they were going to pull the trigger on the Finn-Poe shippers' biggest dream...
I always regarded the Finn/Poe romance idea as a bit of a fan joke so when Poe seemed to be trying to put Finn off Rey I figured it was because Poe fancied her for himself.
Poe crushing on Rey is as good a theory as any. That whole subplot was bungled hard-core. They're sinking in the quicksand and Finn is *clearly* going to tell Rey he loves her. Rey doesn't hear this because she can't understand his feelings (with the Force, maybe?) or mentally pull everybody out of the sand with telekinesis (with THE FORCE, WOMAN!) Afterwards, he blows it off, "No biggie...heh..." What? Your chosen, panicky DYING WORDS weren't that big of a deal!? THEN, Poe gets SUPER PISSED because Finn was going to confide something in Rey. Why? Why is he SO angry? Is he jealous of Finn? Rey? If he is, why is he hitting on Keri Russel? If he's not, why is he SO ANGRY!? Then - and this kills me - they NEVER pay it off AT ALL. They just forget to wrap up that plot. They find time to crowbar in a lesbian kiss and soft-start a weird spinoff with Lando and the Horseridin' Gal, but they don't take two seconds to let Finn confess his love for Rey. Why? Because her accepting him would cut the knees out from her (unearned, but still sorta touching) final moments with Kylo Ren; if she rejects him, that would require whole scenes of drama to feel satisfying. So they just jettisoned it.
Oh, PS: after the fact in interviews, JJ Abrams went full Rowling and turned it into Finn going to say, "Oh, I'm force-sensitive like you." Why? Why would that be his dying words? Why wouldn't he tell her later? WHY WOULDN'T HE SAY THAT TO HIS BEST FRIEND POE!?
I agree with you most of the way on your evaluation of The Last Jedi scene. It was clearly supposed to be sexual tension, but it didn't really do it. Writing? Directing? Performance? Heck: let's blame all three.
And I can't help but think of the SIZZLING tension between Fisher and Ford in Episode V...
I remember reading somewhere that Daisy Ridley didn't want to have a romance in the films and that is certainly the way she played Rey in the film which was as a girl without any overt sexuality. Even her final scene with Kilo was loving but not sexual.
So yes it just made the films lack another facet. If they weren't going to have any romance with Rey then as you say that's what they should have stuck with rather than being half-arsed about it and hinting at it.
If that's true, I think that's a really terrible acting decision. Refusing to give this character any romantic or sexual pulls can only reduce tension in a scene instead of building it somewhere interesting. 99% of the time, that would be a dopey acting decision. I don't want to say "100%", because I can't rule out possible brilliance, but the script would need to support it. These scripts don't. Kylo's fascination with Rey in the first film, her awkwardness around his torso in the second, and then the kissing at the end of the third? To play this relationship as non-romantic would be to miss the relationship entirely.
shareStrong wammen don't need no man
shareHorse Girl felt no love towards emo man Child,the novel says the kiss was just gratitude
shareHER AND THAT LIGHTSABER ARE VERY CLOSE.
sharePerhaps Jedi don't need romance. Yoda and the Jedi in the prequels imply that.
The life force of the Jedi soul is different, something else.